Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Creation Of The Department Of Justice: Professionalization Without Civil Rights Or Civil Service, Jed Handelsman Shugerman
The Creation Of The Department Of Justice: Professionalization Without Civil Rights Or Civil Service, Jed Handelsman Shugerman
Faculty Scholarship
This Article offers a new interpretation of the founding of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 1870 as an effort to shrink and professionalize the federal government. The traditional view is that Congress created the DOJ to increase the federal government's capacity to litigate a growing docket due to the Civil War. More recent scholarship contends that Congress created the DOJ to enforce Reconstruction and ex-slaves' civil rights. However, it has been overlooked that the DOJ Act eliminated about one-third of federal legal staff. The founding of the DOJ had less to do with Reconstruction, and more to do with …